In his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne bestows upon Hester Prynne a character of unparalleled strength with a high capacity for moral reflection. Hester’s strong actions and reflectively eye opening thoughts foreshadow a brilliant light at the end of this dark tunnel of a tale where she will pick a “sweet moral blossom” (Hawthorne 42) that has been nurtured by her excruciating struggle and has finally bloomed. When Hester is officially convicted of her act of adultery, she is forced to wear a scarlet “A” upon her chest as punishment and a symbol of shame that she must live with for the rest of her life; she was then forced to stand on display for her fellow Puritan townspeople and let everyone view her “sin”. However, to the spectators’ amazement, Hester stood before them “with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed” (46). Hawthorne uses her expression in the face of what is meant to be overwhelming pain to show her …show more content…
One might interpret these thoughts as proof of her strength. Just as reflection on her shame begins to bring her to a breaking point, the call of her child snaps her out of it and the reality of the letter is used to remind her that she must continue to fight on. To give in would be to accept her own infant as a symbol of shame which, as any mother would know, goes against every maternal instinct. Any time her strength wavers, she will stand again and move forward for the sake of her baby at